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Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

wired.co.uk

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Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#121

Post by olivermarks »

strict9 wrote: post #104
olivermarks wrote: post #52

A lot of the reason for these design trends is that no one has the courage to think differently, so you get huge numbers of companies all looking virtually identical. It's a bit like 'nobody gets fired for buying IBM/McKinsey' etc...no one challenges product managers and marketing when yet another adobe illustrator generated Memphis style brand identity & UI is unveiled, complete with multi cultural inclusive visual…

>with multi cultural inclusive visual banality Lumping in cultural inclusivity with your critique is quite revealing. There's nothing in the article or about this style of illustration that hints at cultural values, why include it in the tirade?

I was an art director and a creative director last century - mine was not a tirade, more observation of cowardly corporate clients.

Regarding 'multi cultural inclusive visual banality' this is a cultural low tide that is dropping all boats IMO: portraying everyone as mediocre little personas with cute skin colors and different simplified costumes like a cast of playmobile people.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#122

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

The irony is that there's nothing Memphis here. It's all corporate.

Original 80s Memphis was migraine-inducingly Weird As Fuck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group

A very heavily watered down version influenced MTV and an even more neutered version was splattered across numerous corporate brochures and reports in the 90s. But it was only Memphis in the most superficial sense, riffing off bright colours, geometric squiggles, and a few stock Memphis textures like zebra print.

This doesn't even have that. It's just bland, cartoony, sometimes literally faceless, and flat - visually as well as emotionally.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#123

Post by knolax »

vehemenz wrote: post #116
knolax wrote: post #101

> multi cultural inclusive visual banality > It lets companies look diverse > Not sure what skin color to use? Make them blue Seeing cartoon SVGs of brown people really hits a nerve for some people. IMO if you walk around the Bay Area the racial distribution is more or less the same as these graphics, so there's really nothing to complain about in that regard. Go buy Russian software if you don't like it.

It’s a valid observation. Don’t you think it’s a bit cynical and calculated to include “diversity” on every single advertising graphic?

Only if you think that "diversity" is somehow abnormal. Why is it a calculated move for companies like Google, whose CEO has brown skin, to have some of their advertisements include brown skinned people? The real cynical move would be to make them all white to appease middle America. Why do you feel the rest of us have to hide our existence to appease you?

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#125

Post by olivermarks »

TchoBeer wrote: post #120
lupire wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-racism is on trend this year.

I think it'll stay for next year too, considering how many years anti-racism has been on trend.

Racialization - making everything about racial characteristics and pitting races against each other - is what has been 'on trend' recently and the world is a poorer place for it. Anti racism has been around forever and always should be, because drawing attention to and excluding people due to their race is completely unacceptable in liberal democracy merit based societies.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#126

Post by deckard1 »

Pils wrote: post #27
lainga wrote: post #3

The name refers to how it resembles the work of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group

For visual reference, Evan Collin's Are.na block is the most cohesive collection of this aesthetic I've found online https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/memphis-general-g... . The Memphis-esque style is definitely having a moment. You'll notice that the Chillwave aesthetic borrowed a ton of visual cues as well.

I'm surprised this article is referring to it as "Corporate Memphis", when Memphis was already commercialized heavily in the 1980s. Every mall in America looked like that.

What we have today I would think would be more like neo-Memphis. Similar, maybe less pastel and less gradients and less soft filtered.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#127

Post by TchoBeer »

dexwiz wrote: post #78
motohagiography wrote: post #75

The point of these design languages is to affect a sense of power. One of the funniest versions of this was 1990's tech aesthetic that was pure (Italian) Futurism, without any sense of irony about its origins. Corporate Memphis looks like a variation of it. There is a word I can't seem to find, and it's for when you take a font or an image and round it to make it seem softer, safer, and less assertive, and so-called…

I saw a piece in a SF-based Italian art museum that was four panels, each with about 20 small cubbies. In each cubby was an individual abstract, brightly painted wood shape (carving?). If you squinted even a bit, it was indistinguishable from a list of modern corporate logos. Not the same as futurism, but I could see the artistic lineage.

Becomes especially funny when you consider the ideological origins of Italian Futurism. Hint: What was the dominant ideology in Italy in the 1930s and 40s.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#128

Post by jjeaff »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #122

The irony is that there's nothing Memphis here. It's all corporate. Original 80s Memphis was migraine-inducingly Weird As Fuck. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group A very heavily watered down version influenced MTV and an even more neutered version was splattered across numerous corporate brochures and reports in the 90s. But it was only Memphis in the most superficial sense, riffing off bright colours, geome…

I can see some similarities. There are lots of geometric shapes as well as bright pastel colors used in this new "corporate Memphis".

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#129

Post by TchoBeer »

axguscbklp wrote: post #32

Reminds me a bit of the infamous Grubhub ad that came out a few months ago[1] - similarities include the color scheme, the checklist approach to racial diversity, and the attempt to project generic inoffensive "fun". The Grubhub ad, at least, is so bad that it's entertaining. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-T3qKl6y-c

Perhaps, in being so widely shared, it has in fact achieved a level of success that is incredibly rare for an advertisement.

Re: Why does every advert look the same? Corporate Memphis

#130

Post by TchoBeer »

olivermarks wrote: post #125
TchoBeer wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it'll stay for next year too, considering how many years anti-racism has been on trend.

Racialization - making everything about racial characteristics and pitting races against each other - is what has been 'on trend' recently and the world is a poorer place for it. Anti racism has been around forever and always should be, because drawing attention to and excluding people due to their race is completely unacceptable in liberal democracy merit based societies.

I don't see how putting people with darker skin in art could possibly be seen as "pitting races against each other". Would the artstyle be improved if it only depicted white people?
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